Ibby Syed built his AI SaaS to $150K ARR—then realized he'd accidentally built a consulting business. Customers weren't logging in. They'd call with questions, get answers, and disappear. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn how Cotera escaped the services trap and pivoted to an AI SaaS agent platform to hit $1M ARR.

Ibby breaks down exactly how to recognize you're stuck in a consulting trap and escape it. You will learn why his co-founder's 100-line OpenAI experiment outperformed months of data science work, and the painful decision to fire legacy customers to focus on building a real AI SaaS product.

In this episode, Ibby also reveals his "value-first" LinkedIn outbound strategy that books 25+ meetings a week, why AI SaaS products need ongoing utility (not one-time insights), and how teaching customers to build their own AI agents made the business scale.

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🔑 Key Lessons

• 🚨 Early AI SaaS Revenue Can Be a Trap: Ibby hit $150K ARR but customers weren't logging in. The business looked like software but operated like an agency—a dangerous signal he almost ignored.
• 🔄 The Consulting Trap Kills AI SaaS Scalability: When every customer needs custom work, you're not building a product. If customers call for answers instead of logging in, you've built a services business.
• 💡 Let API Breakthroughs Trigger Your Pivot: Ibby's co-founder solved a customer problem with 100 lines of OpenAI code that outperformed a complex data science solution. That contrast made the AI SaaS opportunity obvious.
• 🎯 Deliver Value Upfront in Outbound: Instead of pitching, Ibby sends actual leads from a Reddit monitoring agent. "If you actually show value, people go crazy for it."
• 📉 Analytics Products Lack Stickiness: Dashboards answer questions, but once answered, there's no reason to return. AI SaaS products need ongoing utility, not one-time insights.
• 🛠️ Teach Customers to Build, Don't Build for Them: After the pivot, Cotera stopped doing custom implementations. They showed customers how to build their own AI agents—that's what made the AI SaaS business scale.

Chapters

• Introduction
• Favorite Quote & Mindset
• What is Cotera?
• Ideal Customer & Revenue Snapshot
• Founding Story & YC Entry
• Early Product & Customer Interviews
• Outbound Strategies on LinkedIn
• Effective Outbound Today
• Common Mistakes with AI Outreach
• Realizing the Need to Pivot
• OpenAI API "Wake Up" Moment
• Transitioning to AI SaaS Agent Builder
• Product Differentiation & Competition
• Prompt-Based Workflow Approach
• Traction Before & After Pivot
• Evolving Pricing Model
• How to Contact Ibby

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Resources

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